Cryotherapy for athletes is not a new concept, but as the technology gets more sophisticated it is easier -- and more comfortable -- to use cold therapy for both injury recovery and after workouts to relieve pain and inflammation. Although some athletes use whole-body cryotherapy chambers to drop the temperature of the entire body, many prefer to use the targeted therapy that a cold therapy device delivers. With the additional benefit of active compression, a cold therapy device allows athletes to recover more quickly.

Cryotherapy for athletes has multiple different variations, but when most people hear the term they envision a football player grimacing while lowering himself into a bath of ice water, or a basketball player walking into a cryogenic chamber ensconced in frigid vapor. Fortunately for athletes, a more comfortable, and arguably more effective, alternative exists: localized cryotherapy.